My media server since 2014 has been a 13" 2010 MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard with the built-in Apache server configured to show directory listings. Nothing else is needed... Apache automagically streams mp4s across the network to multiple users flawlessly. I never understood the point of installing a custom Linux media server with a slow funky eyecandy gui when any OS + Apache is all that is needed.
A simple setup like that works well for "just" media streaming, but quickly hits a wall if you want more features: stuff like library search, subtitles, chromecast streaming, etc.
No, that's all redundant. Put all your mp4s in one folder. All of them. Your browser can search the page of directory listing that Apache generates. Subtitles are built into the codex, has nothing whatsoever to do with the server. Chromecast streaming? You're kidding me. Chromecast is and uses the same web technologies as a web server and a web browser. There is nothing novel there. And I already specified that Apache streams to as many clients as can be thrown at the server simultaneously without any extra hardware or software. Oh, you want to stream remotely from your home server? All you need is Apache and an IP Address. Please stop giving Google money. Apache is free software.
Yes, yes, we're all very impressed with your techno-asceticism, but also some of us just want shit that Just Works, has a remote control that isn't just a wireless keyboard and mouse, and doesn't require us to actively sysadmin our TVs.
> Oh, you want to stream remotely from your home server? All you need is Apache and an IP Address.
Hey, you know what "Apache and an IP Address" won't do? Automatically re-encode my enormous remuxed Blu-ray rips at a lower bitrate so I can stream them over my comically limited upstream to a criminally throttled hotel wi-fi connection.
You're talking about something else with a remote control. When you're streaming, the device you're streaming to has control of the audio level, display ratio, and what you are watching, not the server. The remote device becomes the remote control. You're talking about a smart TV or a console system you attach to a TV. Streaming is a different thing.
Apache will stream your stupid 75GB BluRay files without any need to re-encode, and you can watch it remotely so long as the client device can decode it, even across a 10kbit connection, so you go ahead and enjoy your wasted processor cycles and higher electric bill, oh, and watching your content at a lower bit rate and resolution. I'll just stream the large media as is at full quality without compromise.
You have to work really really very hard to get Apache not to just work, and it takes a slashdot-level event to get it to stop working.
Meanwhile, whatever thing you bought will be abandonware in less than 2 years. And chances are about equal your thing is just running a crappy wrapper and gui for Apache anyway. So the business end of your thing is probably free, yet you paid for it anyway.
I feel like you're intentionally missing the point.
Your "dump all your videos into a big directory and Ctrl-F the Apache directory index" workflow will necessarily limit you to watching on devices that can navigate to arbitrary URLs and play videos from them. This will, in most cases, limit you to a computer (built-in browsers in "smart" devices, be they TVs, consoles, or purpose-built streaming boxes, will often play videos only grudgingly), and I don't know about you, but I don't want to sit and watch TV episodes or an entire movie at my computer desk with its relatively tiny monitor and relatively shitty speakers. I want to watch them on my big TV with the fancy sound system in the living room. So what would you suggest for this use case? Connect my computer to the TV? OK, great, but the video card won't output surround sound over HDMI, so now I have to futz with a bunch of other connections if I want more than just stereo sound. And once that that's sorted, how am I supposed to pause the movie when I have to get up to piss, because the TV remote can't control my computer?
> Apache will stream your stupid 75GB BluRay files without any need to re-encode, so long as the client device can decode it, even across a 10kbit connection, so you go ahead and enjoy your wasted processor cycles and higher electric bill.
Again, missing the point. Yes, Apache will happily squirt those bytes at whatever requests them, but that will not produce an enjoyable user experience (i.e., one where I can WATCH THE FUCKING MOVIE) over a sufficiently slow connection, and I'm not going to re-encode every file I have at a low bitrate on the off chance I want to watch it away from home.
> Meanwhile, whatever thing you bought will be abandonware in less than 2 years. And chances are about equal your thing is just running a crappy wrapper and gui for Apache anyway.
My Apple TV HD in my bedroom is still receiving updates seven years after it was originally released. The Apple TV 4K in the living room is still receiving updates five years after it was originally released. I run Plex to stream my local media to local (and my own remote) clients, and it is still actively maintained after 14 years--and if if Plex, Inc. should go under, there are plenty of alternatives that won't necessitate me regressing back to a computer connected to the TV.
Dude. I get it. It's HTTP all the way down. I know that; I'm a professional software developer and have been Into Computers since I was old enough to read. That's also how I know that "just dump your video files into a directory and let Apache serve them and watch them on a computer"--or, yes, "just connect your computer with the directory full of video files directly to the TV"--is a shitty user experience, which is the point you seem bound and determined not to concede, since you are instead laser-focusing on the literal reading of statements like "I'm not going to re-encode every single video file I have on the off chance I want to watch them away from home" (obviously I meant I'm not going to do that AHEAD OF TIME versus letting my Plex server do it on-demand and stream it to me when I'm using a device not on my local network), or splitting hairs about binaural hearing and the utility of surround sound.
In any case, I yield; you have Won the Conversation; congratulations. I'd give you a gold star, but I don't think HN allows emoji in comments.
Whatever works for you. If you have some aversion to hotlinked directory listings and need to see a glitzed up array of tiny movie posters, go with God. I'm glad your stuff works, if it does, and I cry with you if it doesn't.
I just put all my media in S3. Local minio and cloud (w/ presigned urls). Small web app to provide any organization required, with a URL handler to open VLC / music player app.
